Smyrna times., 1887-05-11
A5Olishing Poverty.

II Ihere Is anything IN name, the
new society established by Henry
George and DR.. McGlynn on SUNDAY
evening in New York must be said to
have adopted very taking one. The
Anti-POverty Society" they called it.
and if poverty could be abolished as
easily as the new society was named. it
IS entirely safe to say that the "Anti-
Poverty" Society would soon number
all humanity in Its membership. That
the founders of the new society are
very much i'll earnest is evident bv DR..
McGlynn's assertion that the object of
the society is not to diminish poverty
or to promise those who suffer from it
a surplus of riches in a future world
but " to pluck out the very heart of the
hated thing, not to coddle it by plaster
or pOultice, but to reach to the basis
which is the perennial and fruitful par
ent of that hOrrid poverty resulting
from the injustice of man in violating
the laws of God"
In other words, the new Anti-POyer-
ty Society proposes tear poverty up by
the roots and cast it out of the society
Of humanity altogether. The object is
- 65ASNho OAAO NNA NeLAllN BuD luC average
man of experience in the battle for the
good things of this life will not be able
to repress an amused smile as he con-
templates the size of the job the new
society has undertaken. If Messrs.
George and McGlynn were ANYTHING
but the merest theorists--babes, so to
speak, in the science of compelling
Mother Earth to yield up her treasures
to the dWellers on her surface-they
would be force to laugh in private at
the extravaganza of their own under
taking. The great mass of mankind
from the creation until now has lived
and died in comparative pOvertv-that
IS, by the hardest work has only been
able to secure the plainest living. This
is not true only Of exceptional peoples
and peculiar forms of government, but
the universal experience under all
forms of government and all systems OF
land tenure, including that advocated
by the distinguished founders of the
Anti-POverty Society.
If DR.. McGlynn and Henry George
had been pioneers in the work of clear
ing the virgin forests of this country
and wrestling from unwilling nature
the products and fruits that sustain
civilized life, they would have known
that poverty could not be abolished in
this world until an almighty power
had changed in the most radical man
ner both the processes of nature and
the character of humanity. When
man was told that by the sweat of his
brow he must earn his bread and that
brlers and thOrns were to be the natur.
al products of the earth, poverty be-
came inevitable. Until DR.. McGlynn
and Henry George can not only re-
move that curse, but can make all men
industrious, prOvident, temperate and
wise far above their present attainment
of wisdom, the great mass of men will
continue to be poor in spite of the
preaching of the one and the writing
and lecturing of the other.
1t is only in the clOister or the sane.
tum that the idea that poverty could
be removed by so simple a process as a
change in land tenure could have Origi.
mated. DIR. Franklin, one of the wisesi
Americans that ever lived, gave the
world through his Poor Richard max.
inns the only practical cure for poverty
Industry and economy will bring
wealth to the individuals who practice
both virtues. But DR.. Franklin's old.
fashioned methods of driving the vol
from the door are voted out of dat,
and behind the age by the disciples o
the McGlynn-GeOrge school. All thu
same, however, DIR. Franklin was
practical man and knew what he wa
talking about, while George an,
McGlynn are dreamers and do no
know whereof they speak. The maj
who tries to Danish poverty by Frank
Inns methods will in most cases sue
ceed. Those who expect to do so b!
joining the Anti-POverty Society o
George and McGlynn will follow al
ignis fatuus until it lands them in tn,
deepest possible depths of that which
they would avoid. Philadelphia Times